Posting a Bible verse – a federal crime?

She was court-martialed after refusing to remove a Bible verse she had posted in her work cubicle. Now the former Marine is hopeful the Supreme Court will hear her case.

 

Last week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (CAAF) upheld the court-martial and dismissal from the service of former Marine Lance Corporal Monifa Sterling who continued to post a Bible verse at her desk, despite orders from a superior to take it down.

 

“In the military, a court-martial means you’re being prosecuted for a federal crime,” he explains. “And so she now has this federal criminal conviction on her record for not removing a Bible verse when she was ordered to do so.”

 

The CAAF said RFRA didn’t apply in Sterling’s case (United States v. Sterling) because sharing of Bible verses doesn’t constitute religious exercise as a “part of a religious system of belief.”

 

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